A tour of an altered book

Here’s a video tour of an altered book art journal. Most of it was completed during the stay-at-home orders in Northern California, though if you look closely, you’ll see some ephemera from before from an airplane flight.

What creative endeavors have been helping you during the stay-at-home orders? If you haven’t found any time for it, consider setting out some paper by your work from home area to doodle on or joining with your children in creating images to share in your windows, or making a temporary sculpture out of objects from around your house.

Taking the time…

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can feel more comfortable taking time to explore and express. How do we give ourselves permission for this essential work? Sometimes, we have to sign up for something. We have to attach a day and a time and sometimes a price tag in order to let ourselves create. But what if this was just an essential part of who we are in the world and how we operate? What if this was just as important to us as breathing?

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A peek in my art journal

Here’s a peek inside my most recent art journal.

Close up photo of magenta brush strokes in acrylic paint over wax crayon and watercolor. Image color goes from magenta to emerald green.

Close up photo of magenta brush strokes in acrylic paint over wax crayon and watercolor. Image color goes from magenta to emerald green.

One thing I’ve learned, after twenty (yes, twenty!) years of keeping art journals is it is valuable to vary the size and shape of the book form you work in…Each new shape is a new creative and compositional challenge.

What size do you gravitate towards? How do you keep a creative project fresh after years (or decades) of practice?

Shelves filled with opportunities

I recently wrote a post about my thoughts about decluttering, ephemera, and collections. If you visit the studio, you’ll be greeted by two parrots, full bookshelves, and a wide variety of supplies. This studio is not a blank-slate…it is a bower bird’s eclectic space meant to stimulate curiosity and creativity (which seems appropriate, since these birds are described as being “bright as crayons”).

What collections are essential to your creative practice?

My book!

Last night, I arrived home to a box of my books…not drafts, not proofs, but the real-deal printed books!

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One of my very favorite older adults did the cover art…I can’t wait to show her how it turned out!

Though this is an academic, clinical book, it is filled with stories from the work I do; I believe many will find it enjoyable to read and full of respect and reverence for the amazing older adults I have joined in the studio. It should be available for ordering anywhere books are sold.